People with disabilities still suffer discrimination in hiring

AFP/GettyJack Osbourne and Lisa Stelly pose on arrival for the 19th Annual Race to Erase MS themed "Glam Rock to Erase MS" in Los Angeles on May 18, 2012. The event benefits the Nancy Davis Foundation for Multiple Sclerosis and the Center Without Walls program which continues to raise funds to provide treatment and ultimately find a cure for MS.

By Rodger DeRose

Recently, entertainment personality Jack Osbourne said he lost a job on a reality show because he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

As a professional who knows the value that people with disabilities in the workplace can bring, the news was stunning, sad and alarming. It also was proof that too many employers today underestimate the potential effectiveness of an employee with a disability.

It has been more than two decades since the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed. Since then, people with disabilities have proven they have what it takes to get the job done when given the chance.

A worker with a disability enters a work situation with one goal — to put his abilities on display and prove his worth.

Still, consider this: Employment for people with disabilities is lower than it was before the passage of the ADA, which marks its 22nd anniversary on Thursday.

In fact, of all working-age people with disabilities, only one in five say they are employed, compared with 59 percent of people without disabilities, according to a 2010 study.

Two job candidates might be equal in other ways — including education and experience. But too many times, the job candidate with the disability is left on the outside looking in. Because of barriers to employment, people with disabilities are twice as likely to live in poverty, draining an economy to which many disabled people are otherwise qualified to contribute.

This is the wrong way to operate. Companies should consider following the lead of Walgreen’s, which has served as a real champion for hiring workers with disabilities.
At the company’s distribution center in South Carolina, more than 40 percent of the facility’s employees have a physical or cognitive disability.

Now, Walgreen’s goal is to have 20 percent of all its distribution center jobs filled by people with disabilities. Its employees with disabilities work side-by-side with other team members. They share the same productivity goals and earn the same pay.

In July 2010, President Obama ordered the government to hire 100,000 employees with disabilities in the next five years — a goal that federal agencies have not made great strides toward reaching. A government report, released this spring, said this: Just one in nine of the agencies that had submitted plans for increased disability hiring had actually met the hiring criteria.

There is still time to reach the president’s goals, but the federal government needs to deliver more — the sooner, the better.

Meanwhile, non-traditional social endeavors such as Hudson Community Enterprises are providing a model that can be duplicated throughout the country.

The Jersey City-based business generates $5 million a year in sales. Salaries are competitive, and people with disabilities hold jobs ranging from entry-level to management positions. Employees receive health benefits and have advancement opportunities.

Hudson Community Enterprises is proof that hiring with people with disabilities works — and its model can translate well to for-profit companies.

Meanwhile, Jack Osbourne is being unfairly denied a spot he had already earned before his diagnosis. Real change can’t happen until the attitudes of some employers are adjusted.

Companies benefit when their work forces are truly diverse, and that means including people with disabilities.

Disability rights activist Richard Pimentel says: “The most important skill for people with disabilities is the ability to make people comfortable enough so they no longer see what you have; they see what you are.”

It is time to put more people with disabilities on American payrolls. The payoff could be enormous.

Rodger DeRose is president and CEO of Kessler Foundation, a New Jersey-based group that funds medical research and programs to expand opportunities for job training and employment for people with disabilities. Have an opinion? Go to njvoices.com.